Phaneuf positive after morale hit

Maple Leafs captain Dion Phaneuf seemed to be in a better frame of mind on Monday morning than he was on Saturday night.

After the Leafs wrapped up their dismal four-game road trip through the Western Conference with another loss, this time falling to the St. Louis Blues 3-0 on Saturday, Phaneuf expressed his frustration and dismay.

“What’s the morale? It feels awful,” Phaneuf told media Saturday. “Absolutely terrible. I don’t know what more I can say.”

On Monday morning at the Air Canada Centre, Phaneuf was a little more upbeat when talking about the Leafs’ current situation – a four-game slide in which they were outscored 12-1 and just three wins in their past 15 games.

“Our mindset now is that we want, first and foremost, to have a good start at home. Coming off the road after a long trip we want to focus on our start, coming out and dictating the pace of the game, playing a fast brand of hockey and get back to playing the way were capable of playing,” Phaneuf said.

“You have to stay positive, there’s no time for looking at the floor and feeling sorry for yourself. You have to go back to work and that’s what we did today. We came in with the right attitude. Guys are ready to go, they’re feeling good about being back home and having a good start.”

The Leafs (22-21-3) now play a stretch of eight games (just three at home) running through to Feb. 7 in which six of the seven teams they face (they meet the New Jersey Devils twice) were below them in the standings as of Monday. So if the Leafs, who are now seven points out of a wild-card spot, want to have any chance of salvaging their season, this is the time to rack up some points.

Goals have been tough to come by, though, both even-strength and with the man advantage, since interim head coach Peter Horachek took over six games ago, but the Leafs say they just need a couple to go in and things will turn around.

“We just have to continue to generate chances, because eventually we’re going to be able to put the puck in the net,” Phaneuf said. “We’ve got a lot of highly skilled forwards that can put the puck in the net so we’re confident about that and the way our team can produce offence.”

Toronto has been limited to two or fewer goals in losing seven of eight games in the New Year. Normally playing the 28th-place team would be just what the doctor ordered to get a team out of its scoring funk, but the Leafs always have difficulty with the Carolina Hurricanes (15-25-5), who they lost 4-1 to on Dec. 18, and have now dropped 13 of 18 games to.

Add to this that the Canes are 5-2-1 in January and haven’t allowed a power-play goal since Dec. 20, a span of 13 games and 33 chances, and it could be a tough night for the Leafs.

But they are confident the goals will start to come.

“We were the top scoring team in the league for a while and now we must be the lowest-scoring team in the league but I think it will change,” said Phil Kessel, who hasn’t recorded a point in four games.

“We’ve got good players here and we just have to get it going.”

Kessel said the Leafs have been getting their chances on the power play as well and that the goals will come there too.

“We still get our chances. We’re having a little tough time setting up right now. Once we get it in there, I think we work it pretty well, but we’re not creating the second and third shots … We just have to stay positive. It’s a long season and hopefully we can turn this around,” he said.

Former Leaf Jay McClement, who has been a key part of the Hurricanes penalty kill, says he knows that, despite the Leafs’ recent slump, they can still be dangerous.

“Everybody knows that (top line) is a dangerous line and those are dangerous players and that at any point they can break out so you have to be aware of them at all times, no matter what has gone on with them in the last little while.”

“His one of the best penalty-killers in the league,” Kessel said of McClement, “hopefully I can get one on him.”

In other news, Leafs coach Peter Horachek said forward Leo Komarov, who joined the gameday skate but has missed three straight games with an injured shoulder, will not be in the lineup again Monday night.

“He still has to be cleared to play. We don’t want him to be going in and out of the lineup,” Horachek said. “He said he feels good … the doctors will decide whether (Komarov comes back) Wednesday or after the break.”

Horachek also said defenceman Stephane Robidas, who has been scratched the past two games, has been dealing with an upper-body injury for two months will not play again until after the all-star break.

“We want to make sure that when we’re battling down the stretch that we have him (in the lineup),” Horachek said.

The Leafs will go with Jonathan Bernier in net, while the Hurricanes likely will keep rolling with Anton Khudobin even though Cam Ward has a 1.86 goals-against average in his last eight starts against Toronto.